Hornets-Heat Preview

By KEVIN MASSOTHPosted Apr 19 2016 1:30PM

So much can be said about what the Miami Heat don't have anymore from their last playoff run, but the start of the latest was all about newer faces.

Each began in similar fashion against the same team.

After a record-breaking blowout in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series, the Heat will go for their sixth straight postseason win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night in South Beach.

The last time Miami was in the playoffs, it fell in five games to San Antonio in the 2014 Finals, marking the breakup of its Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The latter two are still with the team, though Bosh has been out since the All-Star break with blood clots in his leg, and Wade, the longtime leader of the franchise, was merely the Heat's third-best player in Sunday's opener.

The 12-time All-Star scored 16 points in a 123-91 rout of the Hornets but took a back seat to a pair of players making their Heat postseason debuts.

Luol Deng made 11 of 13 shots for 31 points, his most in two seasons with Miami, and Hassan Whiteside shot 9 of 11 for 21 points while grabbing 11 rebounds and blocking three shots.

"Whether you lose by 30 or one, it's 1-0," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. "So we lost one game. But obviously, particularly up front, we just got manhandled. And if Deng and Whiteside are going to combine for that kind of numbers, it's going to be hard for us to win."

Deng, a 12-year veteran who spent his first 9 1/2 seasons with Chicago, hadn't scored that many points since going for 37 in a triple-overtime game against New Orleans while with the Bulls on Dec. 2, 2013.

"He wants to make winning plays," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He wants to help a team. I think that will be different things, different nights. ... Mature, veteran players understand it's not about the numbers. It's about contribution of winning plays."

While Wade was somewhat held in check, the Heat still posted a franchise playoff record for points and shot 57.6 percent. They made 9 of 18 3-pointers, including Deng's 4 of 6, and poured in 41 points in the opening quarter to match another franchise mark.

Oh, and they never trailed.

That was a similar story to the 2014 first-round series swept by the Heat, who won the four games over Charlotte by an average of 9.8 points. Eight regular-season matchups since that series have been split even though the Hornets have lost 15 of 16 in Miami, where the Heat have won seven in a row overall and 13 of 15 since the All-Star break.

Miami has won 10 straight first-round playoff games and 16 of its last 20 series after grabbing a 1-0 lead.

Charlotte, meanwhile, is still searching for its first playoff victory since topping the then-New Jersey Nets in Game 3 of a second-round series in 2002. The Hornets have since dropped 11 in a row.

Nicolas Batum scored 20 of his 24 points in Sunday's first half, and leading scorer Kemba Walker finished with 19 but sat out most of the fourth quarter with the game out of reach. Walker has averaged 19.4 points in five career playoff games, all losses to the Heat.

The two teams finished the regular season with identical 48-34 records, but Miami ended up with the No. 3 seed and home advantage in a tight East race, while Charlotte wound up sixth.

"I thought we were going to be ready to go," Batum said. "We've got to be ready next game. This may be a good lesson for us."

Copyright 2016 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Wade scores 28 to lead Heat past Hornets, 115-103 in Game 2

By TIM REYNOLDSPosted Apr 20 2016 10:52PM

MIAMI (AP) Dwyane Wade did not see an offensive outburst like what the Miami Heat have put up in their first two playoff games coming, nor is he counting on it continuing.

For now, he's just enjoying it.

Wade scored 28 points, Hassan Whiteside was a franchise playoff-record 8 for 8 from the field and finished with 17 points, and the Heat beat the Charlotte Hornets 115-103 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference first-round series.

The Heat have averaged 119 points in the first two games of the series, which shifts to Charlotte for Game 3 on Saturday night.

"You want to be able to get stops, you want to be able to put some runs together," Wade said. "And we did that. We didn't play a perfect game, by no stretch of the imagination. We've got a lot of things that we can get better at - that we need to get better at."

Goran Dragic scored 18 points, Luol Deng finished with 16 and Josh Richardson added 15 for Miami, which had 72 points by halftime and never trailed in the second half. Whiteside added 13 rebounds and is now shooting 17 for 19 in the series, his playoff debut.

"As we move on to Charlotte, we can't just bank on our offense," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

"That's the reality of playoff basketball," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. "We go home, we're good at home. I feel like we played better today than we did three days ago."

The game was tied midway through the second quarter, and that's when Miami took off.

The Heat closed a record-setting half with 10 consecutive made shots - eight of them jumpers, four of them 3-pointers - to score a staggering 23 points in 3 1/2 minutes on the way to building a 72-60 lead by intermission.

"We played a great half," Jefferson said, "up to that moment."

Miami missed three shots in 12 second-quarter minutes. Charlotte missed six shots in 12 third-quarter seconds. Strange but true: The Hornets went 0 for 6 on the opening possession of the second half.

Marvin Williams - who shot 0 for 10 on the night - missed a jumper to start the sequence, and then he and Cody Zeller went on a run of something resembling failed volleyball. Zeller missed a putback. Williams then got three offensive rebounds and missed three consecutive shots, and Zeller somehow missed another tip before the Heat finally corralled the rebound.

TIP-INS

Hornets: Nic Batum left with 10:43 remaining after spraining his left ankle, heading straight to the locker room for examination and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the night. Clifford said he was "very" concerned about Batum going forward, and Jefferson said he doesn't expect Batum to return to the series. ... Charlotte allowed two 40-point quarters in the entire regular season. The Hornets gave up two 40-pointers in the first six quarters of this series, 41 in the first on Sunday and 43 in the second on Wednesday. ... Charlotte was 1 for 16 on 3s.

Heat: It was the 100th 20-point game of Wade's playoff career. The Heat are 64-36 in those games. ... This is the 14th time Miami has taken a 2-0 series lead. The Heat won each of the previous 13. ... Miami has won 15 of its last 16 home games with the Hornets. ... The Heat topped the 100-point mark for the 17th consecutive home game. ... Wade became the 18th player in NBA playoff history with 3,500 points.

WILD FIRST

The teams were tied at 29 after the first quarter, and they took wildly different paths to that number. Miami had nine fouls to Charlotte's two, the Heat had all six of the turnovers in the period and the Hornets had a 14-1 edge from the free-throw attempts in the opening 12 minutes.

April 20 has been a noteworthy day for Hornets owner Michael Jordan. It was 30 years ago Wednesday that he scored an NBA-playoff-record 63 points against the Boston Celtics, and 20 years to the day that his Chicago Bulls lost against Indiana - the 10th and final defeat they would endure in what was (until Golden State topped it last week) the NBA-record 72-10 season.

Copyright 2016 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited